Go after erring contractors, DPWH told

Sen. Manuel Villar, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, has expressed concern over an official report that P33 billion worth of public works projects built last year were found defective.

"At a time when the government is hard-up it is jolting to come across a Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) report that 1,069 infrastructure projects built last year had construction flaws," he said.

But all is not lost, Villar said, as the government can fall back on a new law which applies a warranty cover on all public works projects.

He urged the DPWH to invoke the "warranty against defective work" provision in Republic Act 9148, the new government procurement law, in ordering contractors to repair the botched-up projects.

"And if the projects are badly done beyond repair, the government should withhold payment, or if such has been made, demand a refund, which the said law allows," Villar said.

"If still a contractor refuses to replace or repair his work, the DPWH should ban him for life from bidding for government projects and proceed to file a criminal case against him in court," he added.

Villar said the mandatory warranty for all government purchases was institutionalized to ensure the quality and durability of the goods and services paid by taxpayers’ money.

This, as he expressed dismay that some P23.1 billion worth of foreign-funded projects built last year were among those discovered to be defective by the DPWH’s quality assurance unit.

Villar urged DPWH officials to implement rigid quality checks on public works projects to avoid wastage and to see to it that projects are built according to agreed specifications.

He said this must be done so that the alarming rise in the percentage of defective projects to total projects — which jumped to 34 percent in 2003 from 16 percent in 2002 — will be reversed.